Droughts are occurring throughout the world, and the state of Washington is facing the consequences of this complicated natural disaster.
What's happening?
According to The Seattle Times, this year's droughts in the area are being compounded by droughts from previous years, and with decreased rainfall and increased temperatures, the seasons themselves are shifting.
"Our region's summers are starting sooner [and] ending later. … On top of that, warmer winters mean less snowpack to offset these hot, dry months," the Times reported.
Furthermore, with reduced mountain snowpack in reservoirs in the area, hydropower plants, which provide electricity to nearly a million homes, are at risk.
"It's pretty sobering," Siobhan Doherty, power supply officer for the utility company responsible for the reservoirs, told The Seattle Times.
Why are the Seattle droughts concerning?
Scott Revell, director of the Roza Irrigation District, told The Seattle Times that farmers in the area will see less than half of their normal water supply. In turn, the growing season in the district will end a few weeks early.
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One area's cutback season cannot entirely shake the food supply chain, but Seattle is not alone. In Africa, the correlation between droughts and food insecurity is stark, as more than 90 million people face starvation, and natural disasters continue to exacerbate the problem.
While storms, fires, or floods, to name a few, are all likely to happen anyway, rising global temperatures supercharge natural disasters. What could already happen is more likely to occur on a larger scale — meaning longer and less manageable consequences.
What's being done about the droughts?
While Washington declared a drought emergency earlier this spring for the third consecutive year, the recovery funds — $4.5 million — are not expected to be enough.
The Seattle Times reported, "That's a drop in the bucket for the Yakima River Basin's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, not to mention farmers and other suffering communities across the rest of the state."
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